Yes. And Martin Luther, and Chuck Swindol, and Oswald Chambers, and Brennan Manning, and E.P. Saunders, and Krister Stendahl, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and, and, and. None of which is on the level of Scripture.

We have evidently not sufficiently clarified the meaning of "inspired" or the nature, degree, and application of "inspiration."

My position with EGW is not that she is NOT inspired. She did have visions, and these visions are useful to the Christian. But she is most definitely NOT on the level of Scripture. She herself says this with her "lesser light/greater light" idea.

Paul writes in 1 Cor. 7:12 (a passage of Scripture) "To the rest I say this, (I, not the Lord)" Is the council that follows inspired not? Paul said it, not God. (His own words) Yet ALL scripture is "God-breathed."

JAK, why would God inspire something if it is of no value? I'm speaking of less value/more value. Of course a genealogy is not as important as a gospel narrative, but it has its importance (I've mentioned this before). The NT is of more importance than the OT, and the OT should be interpreted by the NT, and not the other way around. And so on. But everything that was inspired is important for our salvation and is authoritative.

This is a common mistake. Martin Luther wasn't inspired, nor Chuck Swindoll, nor Oswald Chambers, nor any of the others you mentioned. People who are inspired are called prophets, and the people you mentioned aren't prophets.

You are right. We must begin by the beginning.
From Wiki (art. "Biblical Inspiration"):

Biblical inspiration is the doctrine in Christian theology that the authors and editors of the Bible were led or influenced by God with the result that their writings may be designated in some sense the word of God.

Evangelicals view the Bible as a genuinely human product, but one whose creation was superintended by the Holy Spirit, preserving the authors' works from error [I would say, doctrinal error] without eliminating their specific concerns, situation, or style. This divine involvement, they say, allowed the biblical writers to communicate without corrupting God's own message both to the immediate recipients of the writings and to those who would come after.

Three basic approaches to inspiration are often described when the evangelical approach to scripture is discussed:[12]:239

1) Dictation Theory: God dictated the books of the Bible word by word as if the biblical authors were dictating machines;[12]
2) Verbal Plenary Inspiration: This view gives a greater role to the human writers of the Bible, while maintaining a belief that God preserved the integrity of the words of the Bible."[13] The effect of inspiration was to move the authors so as to produce the words God wanted.[12] In this view the human writers' "individual backgrounds, personal traits, and literary styles were authentically theirs, but had been providentially prepared by God for use as his instrument in producing Scripture."[13]
3) Dynamic Inspiration: The thoughts contained in the Bible are inspired, but the words used were left to the individual writers. [#3 is the SDA position]

It is a circular argument to use Mrs. White's writtings to prove that Mrs. White is inspired. (Yes, I know. We use the Bible to prove the Bible is inspired. The Bible is in a different category, which is my contention.)

There may not be any, just like there is no Biblical support for Duel Application of prophecy or or the IJ doctrine. (These are just examples, not side-tracks.)
After much study and thought I have come to think of inspiration in this manner. This is how I view it; Ya just gotta' live with it.

Fine. Put your cut-off line wherever you want. But it seems you do agree with my Continuum.

Perhaps. Perhaps not. Any thinking person will recognize that these are good men, who produced good work. Therefore, as per the following logic train previously mentioned:

A) If it is Good, it is from God.
B) If it is from God, it is Inspired.
C) All Inspiration is Equal.
Therefore: Anything "Good" is Inspired by God on an Equal Level.,

these men are also on the level of Scripture.

Any Christian will agree that in the Bible there are things more important than others. However, this is not to say that there are things more inspired than others.

Yes, but what is the difference between their works and the works of an inspired prophet? The difference is that inspired writings are "superintended by the Holy Spirit, preserving the authors' works from [doctrinal] error."


Whose logic is this? The error is in B: "If it is from God, it is inspired." The Holy Spirit suggests good thoughts all the time to all of us - but the communication of these thoughts is not generally superintended by the Holy Spirit and kept free from doctrinal error.